The Measurement of Time

Measurement is a creative dialogue between theory
and reality. It profits from advances in both. Here are
the insights of Ferdinand Gonseth, Professor of Higher
Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology, Zurich, into the problem of
constructing a clock, in From the measurement of time
to the method of research. In J. Zeman, Ed. (1971)
TIME in Science and Philosophy, Amsterdam: Elsevier.

"When one examines the needs to be met for
measuring time with high accuracy, one is confronted
with a certain number of difficulties of various orders,
some of which are of a technical, or even technological
nature, and others of a theoretical character. Still
others may affect the very principle of scientific
research and are, consequently, of a methodological
nature. Seeing them thus clearly indicated, it may be
thought that these different types of difficulties are
independent of each other, and that in order to
overcome them, it is necessary first of all to see to it
that they are well separated. But this idea does not
stand a closer analysis of what we will call further on
the problem of high precisions. It appears on the
contrary, that the difficulties to be overcome are
interlinked, and that they must be approached as a
whole." (p. 277)

"Of course, to a certain and possibly essential extent,
the progress of clock-making technology has been
inspired and oriented by a theoretical ideal, by the
abstract model of the isochronic oscillator. The word
abstract should mean here that it is a question of a
model of a mathematical character, conceived
according to the principles of so-called rational
mechanics. The efforts of technicians and practitioners
have long tended, and still tend, to realize this model
as perfectly as possible, and as faithfully as the
situation and technical means involved will permit.
Most of the technical and industrial progress that took
place up to the advent of electronic techniques could
be analyzed and presented in this perspective: all
research was oriented (or at least seemed to be
oriented) towards the realization of conditions, which,
in the ideal model, ensured the correct functioning of
the isochronous oscillator. The improvements and
discoveries to be made on the technical level seemed
to answer the need for a guiding principle: that of
seeking an ever greater approximation of the theoretical
model." (p. 287)

This is the guiding principle that motivates the
Rasch approach to psychological measurement.

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